I think Dan is onto a good thing here. James, you are doing an excellent
job running the piclist.com but there are some serious holes and
information lacking. Not a fault on your side, the information available
on piclist.com is vast and in a lot of cases above a beginners head.
So I would suggest:
We use the space on piclist.com that James offer and:
First get the user to read the PIC FAQ.
Select the most common PIC's that beginners will start on. Dan already
mentioned the '84, '873'/'876, '877. To that I would add the 12C508/9.
We can expand the FAQ and point out all the pitfalls (Oscall, pins,
oscillator, etc.) for each processor.
Under each processor we give all the code for common used routines that
Dan already mentioned and we can add some more to.
The code must be clearly described so that a beginner will know what
each line does (learn from example). One set of code only per routine,
not multiple codes to show different ways of doing the same thing.
No "shortcuts" in the routine to save a bit of program space.
No macro's or directive language. I know this is there to makes things
easier, but it can be just as confusing if you don't know what they are.
Use only ASM instructions as described in the PIC data books.
Use only MPASM as it is written by Microchip for users of their products
and is free. (or decide on a better one, but the point is it must be a
common single one)

Think of these as open source routines (Unix style, as Bob A said). The
user can do with it what he likes.

Quentin

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